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CalMatters
Winners and losers in California budget deal
By Lynn La,
2024-06-24
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With Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic-led Legislature coming to a budget agreement on Saturday, some winners and losers of the spending plan have become clear. As CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff explains, many programs saw funding cuts, deferrals and delays to find $46.8 billion in fiscal solutions and balance the budget. The effort, according to the governor and legislative leaders , preserves California’s vast social safety net.
Some winners include:
Local homelessness efforts: The budget includes $1 billion for the sixth round of local homelessness funding. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement that the funding allows cities to “expand shelter capacity, grow street outreach teams, and build more temporary and permanent housing options.” Cities are also expected to receive $250 million over the next two years towards clearing homeless encampments .
Child care advocates: Hoping to create over 200,000 additional subsidized openings at child care facilities by 2028, the budget restores funding for 11,000 new slots . In a statement, Child Care Providers United praised the move: The budget protects “families’ child care access and early education for our youngest learners.”
Middle-class scholarship recipients: Though a program that provides financial aid to low- and middle-class college students will have a planned reduction of $110 million a year starting in 2025-26, a one-time $289 million boost to a total of $926 million remains intact for 2024-25. Newsom in May proposed to slash it down to $100 million annually, a would-be blow to California’s plans to make college debt-free.
Cal Grant recipients: A proposal to grow Cal Grant, the state’s key financial aid program, by $245 million has been scrapped . The expansion would have added 137,000 more students by fall 2024. A pared-down plan to expand it to 21,000 more students also didn’t make the final deal.
State of the State: Now that the budget agreement is done, Gov. Newsom will finally deliver his State of the State address on Tuesday. But it will be pre-recorded, not in person before the Legislature, and will be followed up by a letter, his press office announced Sunday .
Voters cast their ballots on Super Tuesday as people get their hair done at Ana’s Barber Shop in San Francisco on March 5, 2024. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters.
Besides the state budget, the big decision before the Legislature and Gov. Newsom this week: What will be the final lineup of propositions and bond measures on California’s Nov. 5 ballot ?
Maybe coming off: Top Democrats who oppose a measure that would increase penalties for retail thieves and drug traffickers (rolling back Proposition 47 approved by voters in 2014) are trying to persuade proponents to pull it off. If that doesn’t happen, Democrats may add a competing crime measure, KCRA reports .
Angie Costales and the National Women’s Law Center assert that employees at her local CVS pharmacy refused to fill her prescription. Photo by Kristian Carreon for CalMatters
Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld federal approval of the abortion medication mifepristone and California enshrined the right to an abortion in its constitution in 2022, confusion over reproductive health care access in the state remains .
In San Diego, a woman who had a miscarriage in December alleges in a formal public letter that staff members at a CVS pharmacy unlawfully denied her medication that doctors prescribed to help her manage the loss of her pregnancy, writes CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang .
Angela Costales and the nonprofit National Women’s Law Center call for CVS to improve its policies and employee training to prevent similar occurrences. Costales has not filed a lawsuit against CVS but isn’t ruling one out, her attorney said.
Costales: “The hardest part is I feel like CVS robbed me of my ability to mourn my pregnancy loss.”
Amy Thibault, a CVS Pharmacy spokesperson, said the company is investigating Costales’ claims. In an email to CalMatters, Thibault said the company has policies that ensure “no patient is ever denied access to medication prescribed by a physician based on a pharmacist’s individual religious or moral beliefs.”
Costales’ allegations underscore the uncertainty health care providers and patients face since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago . Said one staff attorney with the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy: “This flip-flopping of changing of laws from day to day does have a detrimental and chilling effect on care people are getting.”
LGBTQ forms: For years, various health care forms have provided space for patients to voluntarily declare their race, age and other key demographic data to better inform public health responses and treatments. Now, the Legislature is considering a bill that would require health officials to provide space on forms for LGBTQ people to voluntarily note their gender identity and sexual orientation , writes CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow . The measure was proposed after a state audit found that almost all of the dozens of state and local health care forms did not include LGBTQ demographic questions.
Two views on affordable housing on California’s coast:
California doesn’t need to sacrifice coastal protection for new housing and lawmakers should consider strengthening the California Coastal Act to advance housing goals, writes Fred Keeley , the mayor of Santa Cruz.
The Coastal Act has failed to deliver on what it originally envisioned and should be reformed to allow for more apartments near the coast, writes Christopher Pederson , a former attorney for the California Coastal Commission.
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